Sub Scenario 'Hunting for Food' has begun.]
Lee Hyunsung stands at the front of the group with Jung Heewon, cutting down the waves of monsters as they get closer. He's panting, slashing left and right to try and hold up the front line that they've made together.
Blood is splattered everywhere, soaking into the fighting duos clothes and the floor beneath them. Corpses lay at their feet.
The sounds the ground rats make when they are hit with the bone swords is one of agony, a mournful sound like a wounded dog. Kim Dokja does his best to focus on how Heewon is moving instead of the sound the monsters are making.
His companions move fast, but not fast enough. The growling things are slowly starting to overwhelm them. Heewon accidentally lets one of them through, stabbing into one of the quicker rat she yells over her shoulder. "Damn it! I lost one!"
The beast that passed her growls loudly, rushing forward to the rest of the group on fast feet.
Gilyoung raises his weapon high above his head and brings it down on the ground rats head with devastating force. His eyes are focused on the kids target, hand steady around the makeshift hammer he holds.
Sangah comes up behind the boy, stabbing down into the stunned monster. Her arms are shaking and she's panting from the effort this endeavor is taking from her.
Dokja slices clean through a different ground rat that got past Hyunsung and Heewon, his expression a cool calm as he looks over his shoulder. The organs of the rat spill on the ground with it's blood, reeking of iron. 'They're not doing so bad.'
Yoo Joonghyuk sends him an incredulous gaze, side eyeing him from where he is taking up most of Dokja's seat. Seeming reluctant, the protagonist nods slowly.
That bastard?
'I was expecting worse.' He admits to himself, eyeing the teamwork they're showing. No one has really said anything since they started fighting. This is wonderful for no instruction.
"You know, maybe we would have done better if you had -I don't know- included us in the plan to start with?" Jung Heewon snarks from behind him, leaning closer as she sasses at Dokja. He scoffs, raising his hand up and behind to smack at her.
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' agrees with incarnation 'Jung Heewon']
He misses, of course, because he didn't bother to look at her when he tried to hit her. Well, he can't really turn because if he does he'll have to come to terms with some facts he really doesn't want to bother with. "You were fine. You worked excellently."
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' says you should say your plans out loud from now on.]
He's going to ignore that one. It's stupid that guy even tried that in the first place.
Screaming silently in wordless rage, Heewon leans back to form her hands in the air as if she's grabbing him by the throat. She shakes her hands back and forth before sighing loudly and leaning back in her chair.
Which Dokja saw none of because he's staring straight ahead like he should be.
"No- No it has to be on purpose. He has to be doing it on purpose now." Heewon strangles out, leaning over to whisper her complaints to Sangah sitting beside her. Yoo Sangah is nodding along with a tight smile stretched on her face.
"Yes, he's probably doing it on purpose." Sangah agrees, gazing at the back of Dokja's head with cold eyes and her HR smile. Heewon kind of shivers at the sight of it. "We just don't know why."
"Fuck why, I need him to just stop doing it." Heewon grouches, sitting in her seat proper again. She aggressively kicks up the recliners leg rest and settles as best as she can.
He raises from his position hunched over the corpse of the monster he just killed, looking further into the tunnel to try and see if there are any more coming for them. There aren't any, judging by the way that Heewon is rushing back to check on everyone.
"Are you all right?" She checks on everyone as she moves back to where Dokja is standing, looking at the corpses of the monsters that have piled up. As she gets closer, Heewon looks at the reader with surprise in her eyes. She looks impressed at least. "Oh wow... How many did you kill, Dokja-ssi?"
Stepping away from the dead monster as she comes closer, he shakes some of the blood off of his boots and answers her. His eyes don't leave the pool of blood that is slowly growing. It's getting closer to him. "Four."
"Damn. I only got two." Heewon looks at him with a sour face as she mutters that. Her arm is hanging at her side with her weapon.
Hyunsung trots up to them, smiling widely as he holds up his bone weapon covered in blood. The big guy jumps into the conversation with a voice filled with excitement. "I killed three of them!"
Dokja jerks in surprise at that answer, turning blank eyes on the soldier. Staring on incredulously, the reader keeps looking as Hyunsung makes polite conversation with Heewon. 'Three?!'
'I wasn't using my full power so they could get some kills for themselves, but that's only one less than me!'
Dokja understands why Heewon was looking at him with a sour gaze, turning his own on Hyunsung as he cheerfully talks. 'I've been investing a fortune into my stats, what are they feeding this guy!'
Joonghyuk jerks the reader a bit, looking at him with discerning eyes. His hands come up and poke Dokja in a couple of different places before scoffing. "You need to train more you fool."
"It's no wonder you'd fall behind." That guy nods and speaks as if that was final. Dokja scowls at him, pushing the fingers poking at him away. He's so tempted to bite at this fucker. Pulling his lip up into a sneer, the reader decides fuck it and does just that. Dokja leans forward quickly to snap his teeth in the air close to Joonghyuk, leaning back just as fast with a satisfied smug face.
"Not all of us can have your stupidly fast protagonist power ups. You were overpowered at the start." Dokja grumbles, pushing away from the bastard who over took his seat.
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' laughs and encourages you to push harder.]
He doesn't get very far with it, but how far he does get is a victory in and of itself. The protagonist just raises a perfectly groomed eyebrow and grabs his hands to hold instead.
Spluttering, Dokja tries to get his hands back from that guys iron grip. It fails, obviously. Grumbling, he turns his attention to the pop up window instead. "This is all your fault."
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' doesn't know what you're talking about.]
Yeah right.
Confused, and slightly offended, Dokja pulls up Hyunsungs 'Character Profile' to try and get an idea of why this guy is so strong. There's a couple of new things, like higher stats and new skills from the last time he checked, but one thing catches his eye pretty quickly. He purposefully skims over the evaluation. That's not what he's looking for. -the word trust makes something particular skitter up his spine and die in his throat- 'Starter pack?'
'A starter pack is a premium package incarnations can use only when the average of all of their stats is below level ten.'
Dokja thinks back to the times he remembers it being used in the novel, trying to recall what it does as a whole.
'It increases the level of each stat by one and grants incarnations the skill [Weapons Proficiency], which is very useful when they're starting out.'
'I envy him.' The reader continues to watch Hyunsung and Heewon talk, thinking about the soldiers constellation. 'No wonder he's strong! It looks like [Master of Steel] has taken quite a liking to Hyunsung.'
"My constellation did that?" Hyunsung looks on at the screen in amazement, bringing a hand up to his chest to rest it there. Dokja hums at the sight.
"Yeah, you got a good one I must say." Dokja turns to look at the soldier and smiles, pointing at the new notification window that has popped up.
[The Constellation 'Master of Steel' rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment.]
"Thank you." Hyunsung mumbles, equally embarrassed. The reader averts his gaze from them. He looks to the screen instead.
It's not like he's disappointed seeing someone surpass him so easily. He's- There's more to him than his strength. He's more than his fighting power-
Lee Jihye gasps, whipping her head over to where Dokja is sitting half on Joonghyuk's lap with her mouth hung open. "Ahjussi, you're a lot more than fighting power, but you have that too!"
She sounds actually offended on his behalf, deeming it necessary to defend Dokja from himself. Jihye was also very loud about it. It hurt his ears, she was yelling.
"Jihye-ah-" He tries to say something, but is almost immediately interrupted.
"We wouldn't have been able to save master from that theater guy without you!" She is still shouting, but no one is stopping her. Not one of the other adults have tried to soothe her or get her to calm down a little bit. "And that time with the throne, no one else would have been able to do that!"
Jihye is slowly leaning closer and closer the longer she goes on. She keeps talking, bringing up more and more things she has seen him do. It eventually gets to the point that he's just nodding along to get this over with.
Yoo Joonghyuk does finally decide that he has something to say after several minutes of the teenager yapping on about whatever comes to her mind. Dokja was not expecting what he did say though. "Fighting is not all there is."
Is? Is that supposed to be comforting? Because fighting is just about all that brute knows how to do. Side eyeing the protagonist, Dokja just smiles at them both and hopes to get this over with soon.
This is getting really tiring.
Joonghyuk doesn't take well to being ignored, squeezing Dokja hard enough to make him wheeze. The reader smacks at the bastards arm to get him to loosen up.
Motherfucker-
Behind them, Sangah bends over slightly to look over the rats, poking it with her makeshift sword as she brings up a good point. Gilyoung is watching her, poking at the corpse as well. "So, how are we supposed to cook these? I don't think we can eat them raw."
"We can't eat them now, but I'm sure we'll find a way." Dokja turns a little to answer her, watching them both poke and prod at the ground rat. They really are just beating a dead horse at that point, it's not going to make them magically turn into food.
Everyone suddenly turns to Dokja, fixing their eyes on him. They're quiet, not really saying anything to him. And wow- that's actually really uncomfortable.
[Exclusive skill 'The Fourth Wall' stabilizes.]
Averting his eyes away from the group, he breathes as deeply as he dares with the smell filling the tracks. It makes him lightheaded regardless. He muses to himself. 'Hmm, did my answer sound too nonchalant?'
"Hey, I've always wanted to ask you this." Hyunsung interrupts Dokja's thinking, stepping forward a little to catch the readers attention. He snaps his gaze over to the soldier. He can see Myungoh hiding behind a corner for only a moment before his vision is blocked. "Dokja, do you perhaps... know something about the situation we're in?"
'This is how the regressors must have felt in the novel.'
'Some of them claimed that they just had a hunch, or just lied, like I lied to Yoo Joonghyuk.' Dokja thinks, roving his eyes over the group before him. They don't look like they're going to be willing to let this go... 'From the reader's viewpoint, the best way to handle a situation like this was...'
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' looks forward to your decision.]
[Several Constellations are looking forward to your answer.]
The tension is immediately cut through by a shrill scream off ot the side, loud and alarming. Myungoh is the one who screamed, when the group looks over his ankle is caught by one of the monsters.
'...to keep putting yourself in situations where you don't have to answer any questions.' Keeping his face carefully blank, Dokja watches as that guy is yanked by a ground rat. 'Well done, the perfect distraction.'
Han Sooyung scoffs, giving Dokja the most bland look he's seen on her witch face. She is leaned back in her recliner like she's resting on a throne. She has one of her legs hooked on the arm rest at the knee and her face is rested on her fist. "You know they were going to figure it out eventually. Or at the very least they're going to keep asking. Were you just going to keep finding ways to distract them?"
"It's worked so far." He argues, not willing to admit he was just never going to tell any of them. Eventually it would have gotten to the point that they didn't bother asking him about it anymore. If this whole theater thing didn't happen at least.
The plagiarist scoffs at him, waving her free hand around in a circle. She then shoves her pointer finger in his face. "Right. And what were you going to do when they eventually found out? There are so many ways that can go wrong."
Dokja was actually trying his hardest to avoid thinking about that, actually. Snapping at her, he shoves Sooyoung's hand out of his face.
"We would have understood, Dokja-ssi." Sangah pipes in when neither of them say anything else. Her voice is soft in the way you would talk to a scared animal and he really just wants to scream. "We're understanding now, aren't we?"
The reader glances over his shoulder quickly, to look at her sitting behind him. Her face is just as soft as her voice is, melted in a menagerie of emotions he can't pick apart from each other. Finally, he looks back in front of him and gives her a cursory acknowledgement. "I guess so."
"He- Help me!" The coward is dragged with his ankle in the jaw of the monster, screaming as he hold his hand out to try grabbing onto something.
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' nods in agreement.]
Sangah, the sweet and polite person that she is, holds out her bone sword for Myungoh to grab onto. Dokja is about to tell her not to, but he's too late when she is yanked forward and taken with Myungoh by the monster rat.
[The Constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is upset at the near certain cliffhanger.]
The duo is dragged into a tunnel by the ground rat. Hyunsung tries to run forward and grab onto them to help but he's too late as the monster is faster. Surprised, the soldier stands there with his arm held out saying nothing.
"Ugh, damn it. I just knew he'd get us into trouble..." Heewon sighs in exasperation, resting her forehead on her hand to cradle it. She looks like she's trying to soothe a headache.
Gilyoung is looking at Dokja behind the other two, big knowing eyes turned to the only mellow adult. The reader watches on with a blank face as the others stress over the turn of events.
The kid inches closer, grabbing onto the bottom hem of Dokja's black button up. The image out of the corner of his eye is a trick of the light. It must be. He no longer sees brown hair and a tan shirt. Instead the thing he catches without glancing down is black hair and a white shirt.
"Wasn't ahjussi wearing that white shirt in those memory things?" Yoosung whispers to Gilyoung reluctantly, not wanting to talk to the bug boy but also not wanting to disturb Dokja while the movie is going on.
Tilting his head to the side, Gilyoung is quiet as he thinks. "He was."
"He keeps seeing a little version of himself in place of you when he's not looking properly." Yoosung pouts, feeling left out. Maybe it's because Dokja has known that kid longer.
"I- I don't think that it's a good thing." Gilyoung mutters, turning to continue watching the screen once more. "I don't like what this is trying to say."
He tries to ignore it, but the insistent needling in the back of his mind begs him to look over at the boy. To prove the familiar sight is wrong. It's Gilyoung standing there, not a memory long gone.
[Exclusive skill 'The Fourth Wall' strengthens.]
He looks down at the kid, an excuse already on his tongue. There isn't anything to reason with though. "We'll be after them then, Gilyoung-ah."
The kid nods at him silently.
"I still can't believe you only took the child." Heewon grumbles, motioning vaguely at Gilyoung who is squished in with the rest of the kids.
Hyunsung looks behind at her, grimacing at the way she said it. "Heewon-ssi..."
"I have a point!" She defends herself, not willing to listen to that disappointed tone.
[The constellations who like children agree with incarnation 'Jung Heewon'.]
"Well, sort of, but you could have been nicer about it." The soldier concedes, picking at his nail beds as he shoots a glance at the kid they're talking about.
Heewon huffs, but acquiesces at his point. Jihye replaces her in the conversation instead. "Why did you just bring bug boy with you, ahjussi?"
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' wishes you would not spoil future events.]
Well, Dokja is sure the answer will be coming soon. He doesn't exactly ignore her, sending the teenager a smile, but he doesn't answer.
She squabbles at that, her face flushing up in upset, trying to find something to say to get Dokja to answer her. Jihye is very obviously glaring at the air, most likely at the notification that was sent in by that plotter guy.
The screen continues playing before she can get it out.
"Is it really okay for them to go on their own?" Heewon asks on the nearly empty rails, looking down into the dark tunnel that their leader and youngest member just jumped into. She stands with her arms crossed over her chest and her teeth worrying at her lower lip.
Hyunsung stands with her, looking into the tunnel with just as much nervous energy as she is. He looks down the tracks every so often in case of another attack from the monsters. There is nothing. He remembers the conversation they just had with Dokja very well.
A flashback flickers onto the screen, showing what had been skipped over.
"You're only going to take Gilyoung with you?!" Heewon has her hands thrown out to the side, leaning forward slightly as she is forced to just watch Dokja crouch at the edge of the tunnel. Her lips are pursed and her eyebrows are drawn up in frustration.
"Gilyoung's ability will help us track them." Dokja looks over his shoulder to the duo, replying to her. Heewon tries to cut in, stepping forward in disbelief, but Dokja bulldozes past anything she might try to say. "And Hyunsung, look after Heewon, please. She's not fully recovered yet. I can tell that she's tired."
Hyunsung glances to the side a little, taking stock of how Heewon looks to be doing. She's sweating and panting, the poison spotting on her skin has yet to fully recede. She really isn't doing so well.
The flashback ends there, returning to just Hyunsung and Heewon standing there at the entrance of the rat tunnel. He reminds her that Dokja had said that he would send a signal in case of any issues while she just grumbles about being fine.
Down in the darkness, the only sounds that Dokja and Gilyoung can hear are the faint sounds of their footsteps. Here, in this space where he can hear little and see little, he finds comfort he hasn't found in a long while.
The screen sort of flickers in that familiar way that makes the screen feel like an old tv playing a vhs tape. The next scene is fuzzed at the edges and skips a bit.
Dokja squirms in the chair, grimacing at what he knows will come next. He remembers what he was thinking about at the time. His skin burns at the pressure of the protagonist being pressed up against him. The reader is very tempted to climb out to get his own space for a little bit.
The rest of the adults share knowing looks with each other, watching the rat wiggle in the chair. Sooyoung makes a couple of vague gestures after leaning away from Dokja so he doesn't catch it.
He's too distracted to do so, but it's not unprompted to be cautious with this guy.
Heewon shrugs at the writer, making her own gestures. She's not as careful about it considering she's behind the subject of their silent conversation.
Sangah actually speaks, whispering to Heewon to pass it along. "It's something important."
That's just a guess based off of how uncomfortable Dokja looks when he's been fine before this. His lips are turned down and he's squinting at Joonghyuk.
Yup. Definitely important.
It's mostly dark, so very similar to the ground rat tunnels, but there's a small sliver of light filtering in somewhere behind where they are being shown. In front of them is a familiar kid, short black hair and a white T-shirt that has shown up quite a few times.
In the little light shining in this spot, Dokja is curled up on the floor under hung up clothes. The clothes look distorted and longer than they should be considering they look exactly like the clothes he's wearing currently. He looks no older than six, though he is probably older than that. He looks younger just being curled up like that either way.
He's- he's not quite quiet, there's tiny hiccups and sniffles that the kid can't entirely muffle, but he's trying his hardest. Little Dokja's hands are pressing against his own mouth hard enough for his knuckles to be white. There are tears streaming down his cheeks, coming from dull eyes that are unfocused and staring at nothing.
The screen suddenly switches to looking at the closet doors that are cracked open slightly. The room beyond the doors isn't fully visible, but it's clear the light is coming from somewhere outside a window. It's too soft to be from an overhead light.
The room looks about normal for a child, a small bed shoved up in one of the corners and there's a dresser right in line with the closet. It would be just a normal room if not for the lamp on the ground with a broken light bulb. There's glass shard on the floor that are shining in the outside light.
They sort of look like stars on the hard floor.
The soft light starts to bleed red, still looking like it's from outside. The slats in the closet door do nothing to block the light from getting into the closet. The sound of a door opening out of view screeches in the room, interrupting the peaceful silence. The closet isn't so dark as the opening door lets in more red light.
A figure, completely blacked out with not a deciding feature on display, walks into the room. It carefully edges around the glass on the floor, making it's way to the bed. It crouches down slowly and reaches a hand under to feel around under there. A haunting voice calls out to shatter the comforting silence. "Dokja-"
The voice cracks and the figure coughs. She, for all her voice was hoarse it was definitely feminine, taps around a bit longer but stands when she finds nothing. The figure turns to the closet. She walks forward.
The scene turns back to the tiny Dokja, now completely quiet as he watches and waits. The red light filters in through the cracks in the closet door as he scrunches up further and curls back even more into the clothes. No matter how long they are, they don't cover him at all.
A shadow caused by the figure blocking the light falls over Dokja's face, hiding his fright from the screen and leaving his expression unseen in the darkness. The doors of the closet open and more of the light pours in. The shadow gets bigger as the figure gets closer. Her voice echoes as the last thing heard.
"There you are, Dokja."
The screen fizzles back into the dark tunnels. Maybe it's better not to think about that for now. Dark and quiet doesn't quite mean safety anymore.
Several people breath in harshly at the ambiguous scene. They had been expecting something, but this was tamer than the other ones.
"That's... That's very ominous." Hyunsung says, still fiddling with his hands in his lap.
Dokja looks at him and considers the scene. That wasn't anywhere near as bad as the other ones, but it does leave a certain flavor in his mouth. "I don't see how."
"You absolutely do." Sooyoung scoffs at him, raising her voice up a couple of pitches as she mocks him "I dOn'T sEe HoW."
Dokja does a double take, sneering at the face she is making. Sooyoung's face in pulled down exaggeratedly in every place she can control. It looks so obnoxious.
[Exclusive skill 'The Fourth Wall' strengthens.]
There's that skill again. That notification has been popping up constantly whenever things like that show up. Sooyoung looks to Heewon and Sangah, seeing if they noticed it too.
They did.
"It showed up again." Sangah mumbles, leaning in towards Sooyoung to whisper to her. Dokja is too busy zoning out looking at the screen to hear them.
The kids do look at them though.
"Do you think ahjussi is okay, unnie?" Yoosung sits up on her knees to lean towards them in the row behind, her face covered in concern. Gilyoung and Mia nod along, as if they had talked about this beforehand and agreed to ask.
Sangah's own face twists up,she inhales deeply with pursed lips and turns away as she answers. "We can hope."
Gilyoung gives a wounded sound, but doesn't say anything further. It seems his worries earlier are coming to fruition.
'The Dark Fold. This place is where ground rats reside. It's called the Dark Fold because all light is absorbed to the point it is difficult to tell which way is up or down.'
Little faint whisps of green lights flutter around them, highlighting Gilyoung's hand that is clinging to Dokja's own. He just has to focus on that sensation. "This way."
'If it hadn't been for Gilyoung having the [Interspecies Communication] skill, I would have had to use coins unnecessarily here. It would have been a waste that would set me back.'
They keep walking, but Gilyoung turns his head a little to look over his shoulder at the reader. Even as he leads them forward, the kid speaks to him. "Tell me, hyung."
"Yes?" Dokja is not certain about what the kid wants to know, but he has a few guesses. He was looking at him earlier after all. He was just really hoping he wouldn't have to confront the consequences of his actions so soon.
Gilyoung watches him as they walk, never once looking away as they moved. Eventually the kid asks the question Dokja really didn't want to answer. "Did you do that on purpose?"
"..." The reader doesn't say anything, just watching as Gilyoung turns to watch the way as they walk. The kid is smart, Dokja will give him that. Cocking his head to the side, he tries to think of an answer.
"When the monster dragged noona and that ahjussi, you didn't help them on purpose." Gilyoung is assured with his conclusion, certain that he is right. Dokja can hear it in his voice. His steps pause slightly, faltering at the idea of being read so easily. So this is how it feels.
'I hate it.'